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SIGALTSTACK(2) | System Calls Manual | SIGALTSTACK(2) |
NAME¶
sigaltstack — set and/or get signal stack contextLIBRARY¶
Standard C Library (libc, -lc)SYNOPSIS¶
#include <signal.h>typedef struct { char *ss_sp; size_t ss_size; int ss_flags; } stack_t;
int
sigaltstack(const stack_t * restrict ss, stack_t * restrict oss);
DESCRIPTION¶
The sigaltstack() system call allows defining an alternate stack on which signals are to be processed for the current thread. If ss is non-zero, it specifies a pointer to and the size of a signal stack on which to deliver signals. When a signal's action indicates its handler should execute on the signal stack (specified with a sigaction(2) system call), the system checks to see if the thread is currently executing on that stack. If the thread is not currently executing on the signal stack, the system arranges a switch to the signal stack for the duration of the signal handler's execution. An active stack cannot be modified. IfSS_DISABLE
is set in ss_flags,
ss_sp and ss_size are ignored and
the signal stack will be disabled. A disabled stack will cause all signals to
be taken on the regular user stack. If the stack is later re-enabled then all
signals that were specified to be processed on an alternate stack will resume
doing so.
If oss is non-zero, the current signal stack state is
returned. The ss_flags field will contain the value
SS_ONSTACK
if the thread is currently on a signal
stack and SS_DISABLE
if the signal stack is currently
disabled.
NOTES¶
The valueSIGSTKSZ
is defined to be the number of
bytes/chars that would be used to cover the usual case when allocating an
alternate stack area. The following code fragment is typically used to
allocate an alternate stack.
if ((sigstk.ss_sp = malloc(SIGSTKSZ)) == NULL) /* error return */ sigstk.ss_size = SIGSTKSZ; sigstk.ss_flags = 0; if (sigaltstack(&sigstk, NULL) < 0) perror("sigaltstack");
MINSIGSTKSZ
is defined to be the number of
bytes/chars that is required by the operating system to implement the
alternate stack feature. In computing an alternate stack size, programs should
add MINSIGSTKSZ
to their stack requirements to allow
for the operating system overhead.
Signal stacks are automatically adjusted for the direction of stack growth and
alignment requirements. Signal stacks may or may not be protected by the
hardware and are not ``grown'' automatically as is done for the normal stack.
If the stack overflows and this space is not protected unpredictable results
may occur.
RETURN VALUES¶
The sigaltstack() function returns the value 0 if successful; otherwise the value -1 is returned and the global variable errno is set to indicate the error.ERRORS¶
The sigaltstack() system call will fail and the signal stack context will remain unchanged if one of the following occurs.- [
EFAULT
] - Either ss or oss points to memory that is not a valid part of the process address space.
- [
EPERM
] - An attempt was made to modify an active stack.
- [
EINVAL
] - The ss_flags field was invalid.
- [
ENOMEM
] - Size of alternate stack area is less than or equal to
MINSIGSTKSZ
.
SEE ALSO¶
sigaction(2), setjmp(3)HISTORY¶
The predecessor to sigaltstack(), the sigstack() system call, appeared in 4.2BSD.May 6, 2010 | Debian |